Which photographic community is the best?

In the last months i have thought a lot about the right image management and the best way of using the big communities for my photography. When i started with my digital photography more seriously in 2004, i was only active in the Fotocommunity (FC), and all my images were shown there. I learned a lot from my FC-friends and i am very thankful for the critical or encouraging remarks of my friends there. We used the FC "behind the scenes" for a critical exchange about our works, and i think, this was the time, where i learned the most about how to let images look good. We had the FC-gallery as a public area and "motivation zone" for our works, and i have to admit, that me and my friends supported each other in word and deed - it was always a big pleasure to gain a "gallery star". Unfortunately there are some birth defects in the FC, and these faults were leading to my first turning away of the FC in the end of 2005.
The first big mistake of the FC is: You cannot delete ugly remarks under your images by yourself. You have always to contact the admins, and it is clearly visible, that a few admins cannot control a commmunity of several hundret thousands of users.
Second big mistake: Everybody is able to create a fake account within a few minutes. With these fake accounts you can make trouble under other images - and because of mistake nr. one the photographer must look on remarks like "Sneaky little trash image" for the rest of his life, unless he is "running to mummy" (calling the admins for help).
Mistake Nr.3 is, that they have a lot of packs there, making trouble with other packs (because of mistake 1 & 2), especially in the gallery votings. It has nothing to do with constructive critics, when so called "street photographers" are writing destructive and condescending remarks about the works of nature photographers - it was in many cases the result of personal frustration of some people. In the end they had so many discussions with 200, 300 or more comments, that it was a big waste of time, to take part on this "discussions". I have to admit: Because of my temper i sometimes was argueing there too often, especially when my friends were attacked before. It was leading to nothing, and i regreted it afterwards, but now i think, the trouble is one of the principles of the FC. They probable think, that the users are more active, when they have such ugly discussions, but this works only for a short period. On the long run it is a shot in the foot, cause many ambitious photographers were leaving the FC. Simply, because they have better things to do, than to argue with boneheads.
In the autumn of 2005 things were escalating, when i made some suggestions who were pasted by several tenthousands of users. I was simply phrasing 4 points, to have a better and more constructive gallery voting, my so called "reform ideas", but the FC-admins did nothing, to improve the gallery voting. Main problem there is, that they are publishing under each image the name of the photographer, so that the voters (who are deciding about success) can vote for their buddies or against their "enemies". As a result of this idiotic system they have big brawls there, even today they have a lot of very destructive and ugly discussions between the users and some well know trouble makers, while the FC-admins seem to have no problems with the institution "gallery voting" or "voting center", as they call it in the FC.
You can find my reform ideas even today in many FC-profiles, because up to this day they changed almost nothing in their gallery voting. The old packs are still active there, but the whole FC has become boring, compared with 2005, because so many good photographers have left the community.
In a final big uproar (end of 2005) i left the FC for one year, came back for one year, saw, that nothing had changed (except the fact, that in the meantime many good photographers had left the club) - and left the FC for good afterwards.
In the meantime the number of comments and the quality of the shown images in the FC has gained a very low level. The FC has given away the chance of being a photographic hometown for good photographers, they concentrate their attention on newbies and hobby snapshooters. Very sad, because i like the way, how images are presented there - the dark grey background is much better than the bright white Flickr-background. But i have to face the facts: The FC admins do not want to change a bit there, and so their community has totally lost the attraction to me.

Then i tried some other communities. Here is my personal subjective judgement:
Photo Points should be called "Photofriends", you will only find "nice comments", and the people there are friendly and good fellows - but not very interested to improve their photography. Nevertheless Photo Points have some good artists there, and they are showing not only mainstream-images, but more seriously pictures, selected by a jury.
Sternview - is a german "clone" of Flickr, but only a poor copy in my eyes. Especially the bright white background shows, that they are not interested in photographic issues. I believe, Sternview was more founded, to sell the "Stern Magazine" and get some images from the hobby snapshooters. The photographic standard is not very high. The same with
Chip Fotowelt: Commercial interests, very much advertising, mainstream and colourful images manipulations instead of good photography. Forget it!
Photo Sig: Club of frustrated amateurs. At Photosig you get comments and critics - but on each image, even if the image is perfect. :-) They would criticize the best works of photo-history there, Henri Cartier-Bresson would get tipps for making his images more interesting... :-) They have also a poor level there, the admins are interfering very much (f.e. one female admin told me, that Ansel Adams was no good photographer in her eyes (though she called herself a professional - i wonder in which business. Obviously not in photography.). I remember one hot discussion with an hdr-freak (a candyman from USA, creator of the most ugly and artificial images, that i ever saw), who was trying to give me lessons about good photography. He found, that my images needed much more hdr and tonemapping...
In my eyes photosig is more something for hobby snapshooters, who have fun in discussions, even if there is nothing to discuss.
I tried some other communities (i still have an account at Fototalk and at Art Limited) - and i will probable try out some more in the future, but Flickr is - so far - the best community for photographers, simply because it is the biggest community - you can find everything there. Professional photographers will find good contacts, and hobby snapshooters can use it for "awards" and "invitations". I use it for an exchange with some dear contacts, that i made there in the meantime. For example my Flickr-friends Michal, Rui and Rob are very good photographers, each new image is interesting and inspiring to me.
But because you have a kind of "image flatrate" at Flickr, there is the danger of inflation. So many images, so many contacts and groups. It is sometimes really exhausting.
So i remembered the old quote: Less is more!
I reduced the number of my contacts, made a new account ("Lutz Breden unplugged") and in the meantime i hide the less interesting images after a little time. So i show not longer more than 200 images, but at least 20,30 images. It makes it more easy for my visitors to take a look at my portfolio and i can be sure, that they will view the most interesting images, not only the latest.
For the future i will concentrate myself at Flickr on less groups, for example AoL (Art of Landscape) and SVS (Something very special, my own foundation) and few good photographers. I don't want to waste to much time with vanity comments.
Beside my Flickr-Work i will build up my own website (www.lutz-breden.de) with a collection of my best images.
I think, this is the best way to use the web for ambitious photography. Each artist needs a feedback and some good words from time to time - but base flattery or feedback of bad photographers is more or less a waste of time.

New Start for this Blog

I have decided to post here on this blog in the future mostly in english language, because most of my contacts are international - and in the meantime i am able to write much faster in english, than in former times. (Thx to many Flickr posts...)
If i nevertheless make some mistakes, i was glad, if you would correct me. It is not always very easy, to write in another language than the mother tongue. F.e. i wrote in many of my posts "watch this shot in big" - a Flickr-contact told me, that american and english countrymen would have used "VIEW this shot in big"... So i hope, that i will not forget this hint and i try to avoid similiar mistakes. ;-)
The same with reading. I understand the sense of many comments, but if some people make remarks in colloquial speech, i sometimes have to slow down my reading speed, cause i have to think about the sense of all the abbreviations and hidden jokes.
So in english language things you must treat me like a 6 years old child. I hope, that i can grow up a little, in the next years.
;-)